Situational approaches to offending focus on the relationship between offender and victim and why specific crimes are committed. Situational analyses aim to predict high-risk times, places, and persons, based on personal choices that increase the likelihood that an individual with certain characteristics will engage in risky and criminal behavior. Routine-activities theory and rational-choice theory are based in this view of criminal behavior. Routine activities theory proposes that three factors must be present for a crime to occur: a likely offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian to deter or challenge the offending behavior. Rational-choice theory builds on opportunity theories and argues that crime is a calculated and deliberate event based on the offender's assessment of risks compared to rewards in a specific situation. When applied to persons at risk for the sexual abuse of children, this means that they commit their crimes when they have either chosen or encountered a situation in which they find a suitable potential victim (a child of preferred gender) in the context of an opportunity for committing the crime without a high risk of being stopped or caught. Whereas, some theorists recommend using a risk-management model for addressing child sexual abuse, i.e., attempting to ensure that high-risk child molesters are prevented from being in tempting environments, this chapter favors a good-lives model of offender rehabilitation, which involves guiding offenders into fulfilling alternatives to the sexual abuse of children, which leads to their personal choice to avoid risky situations. 64 references